Brand Placement in Title Tags

I was in a meeting about seo Friday, and I was left pondering a question I’ve pondered before: where do brands belong in title tags?

There are really just two choices, the front and the back. If you put the brand name in the back, there is a chance a searcher might miss it. They might go to your site and never remember the name because it didn’t make that first impression. They remember the content, but not the brand.

On the other hand, putting the brand in front means giving up valuable keyword real estate. You are potentially sacrificing the only few words a user will ever see to get your brand name out. If it’s an unknown brand, there’s even a chance that will induce someone to skip your link.

So what’s worse? Well, I think our narcissistic and English basis makes us think that the name should come first. We read left to right, and from a hierarchical standpoint it make sense to use: site - section - page. It’s just the way we think. And we certainly don’t want to risk an opportunity to throw our brand in everyone’s face. Consider that and the fact that every uber brand in the world uses this structure (plus some very popular content management systems like wordpress) and you have a fairly compelling argument for placing your brand name first in your title.

But wait… you’re not an uber brand… at least most likely you’re not. So there’s a good chance you’ll benefit more from keywords first. Well… maybe. You don’t need to be Facebook SEOmoz to warrant the brand first title tag, but you also shouldn’t just go for it because that’s what SEOmoz does.

Unless you are well known in your target market, you really shouldn’t be putting your name up front. The key isn’t size, it’s brand awareness in your target market. If your name already means something throw it up front. If it doesn’t (which can be hard to admit) it gets the back seat to content.

Updated: I changed my example from Facebook to SEOmoz. I think this post is more relevant with this example, because SEOmoz is really using its brand recognition in the field to drive clicks.